VolkeFit: A Double Shot of Steve

My wife said she was too tired to go to Steve's again, so asked me to take her spot.  She ended up staying home and dealing with our children, so I'm not sure it actually worked out for her.   Worked out great for me, though.


A. Every 2 Minutes for 30 minutes

Using 135lb barbell, every 2 minutes:
3 deadlift
3 power cleans
3 push press

The complex took between 23 and 30 seconds most of the way, so it allowed me to rest for the rest of each 2-minute round.



B. Don't Stop Skipping


300 DU
Everytime you stop, do 3 burpees and 1 handstand push-up.

Not for time, so I made sure to catch my breath in between rounds.

Here's how this went:

98 DUs (PR!)
3+1
55 DUs
3+1
6 DUs (DAMMIT)
3+1
60 DUs
3+1
81 DUs.

Deadlift, Push Press and Dodgeball

I did two muscle-ups during the warm-up. I barely got high enough and really had to work and kick to get locked out.  Basically, I got up there through sheer orneriness. 

Strength

Deadlift - 4 reps @ 60%, 70%,75%, 80-85%

Marco and I used 190, 225, 235 and 265

 

Push Press – 4 reps @ 60%, 70%, 75%, 80-85%

I used 120, 140, 150 and 165. 

 

 

Push press EMOM 4 reps every min @ 55-60% for 10 min

I used 120 for this.  After the heavier ones, this seemed pretty easy. 

 

Dodgeball

If you got hit, you had to do 20 reps of an exercise, depending on the colour of ball that hit you.  In the second game, I had to do 20 jumping squats.  Other than that, I got off scot-free as our team dominated . 

 

Later, I joined in a consequence-free game against some of the ACT or Invictus folks.  I ended up scoring the winning elimination by catching a ball from the opposing team's last player.  I didn't really catch it due to my awesome reflexes.  I simply got hit perfectly in the junk and bent over so quickly that the ball was trapped. 

 

I told the thrower who I eliminated, "If it's any consolation, you just ruined my weekend."

CrossFit Open Throwback Tuesday

With the CrossFit Open coming back, CFR decided to revisit a couple of workouts from last year's open for the Tuesday WOD.  And why not?


13.2:
10 minute AMRAP of
-5 shoulder to overhead (115lb)
-10 deadlifts (115lb)
-15 box jumps or steps on a 24" box

Here's how I did on this last year.

A year later, I wasn't quite as proficient.  I got 7 rounds, plus one push press. 

I used push presses for the overhead lifts, and was able to bang them out pretty quick.  The deadlifts started to suck about halfway through, but writing this the next day I have zero back discomfort so I guess the bit of foam rolling I did helped.  I stepped on the box the whole way through.  It allowed me to keep a steady pace and not burn myself out. It's maybe not quite as fast as jumping, but I didn't have to rest during the steps at all.   


We rested for 10 minutes.  Then..



13.5
Four-minute AMRAP of
-15 thrusters (100lbs)
-15 C2B pull-ups

Here's how I did on this last year.

Unlike the Open version of the workout, where you get another four minutes for every three rounds you complete, we were supposed to stop after four minutes.  Not that it mattered to me anyway. 

Again, I did significantly worse than last year, though that can probably be excused by being older, injured and freaking tired from the first WOD.  Plus, the competition atmosphere, with hordes of people cheering me on, was missing. 

I'll settle for a score of 61 (two full rounds, plus one thruster)

Push Press, Weighted PLU, AMRAP (DUs and Burpees)

Push press 5-5-5 (start at 70%)


135-145-155


Wt. PLU 3-2-1
3x35
2x45
1x55 (KB)

I tried 1x60 and got close, but I kipped, and chicken-necked quite a bit on it and am not sure if my chin actually broke the plane  

B. 12 min AMRAP

11 double unders
1 burpee

12 Double unders
2 burpees

13 double unders
3 burpees

etc.
Continue up the ladder for 12 min. Score is total rounds.

I did 11 rounds, plus 12 DUs and 20 burpees. 

All but one of my sets of DUs were unbroken. 

The Lion

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

1 Power Clean
2 Front Squats
3 Push Press
4 Back Squats 75/55lb

As far as I've been able to determine, this was my first time ever doing this WOD.

The number of moderate-weighted squats might not have been a great idea for my leg, but figuring out what I can do without consequences and what I'm going to pay for is a crapshoot these days. 

I was feeling this one for days after, in both legs. 

During the WOD, there were a few times, maybe more than a few, that I did three front squats instead of two.  Dumb.  The sets of four back squats were the hardest at the end.  The push press were still pretty easy, thanks to the fact that I have short arms and the bar doesn't have to travel very far. 

I ended up with 31 rounds, plus 1 clean and 1 front squat.  (31 rounds + 2).

A Bucketful of Fail

Made it to another 6 a.m. class. 

A.Snatch Complex

Snatch push press + OHS + snatch balance, x2(reps) x3(sets), 65-75% of Snatch

I used 115, which falls nicely between 65 and 75 per cent of my max snatch of 165.   But it was probably too much for me to use today. 

First set - made it through until the snatch balance on the second rep. 

Second set - I think I dropped it on the overhead squat in the first rep. 

Third set - Completed

Fourth set - made it through until the snatch balance on the second rep. 

A bucketful of fail. 

I was a little pissed off about this right after it happened. Then I had to move on to the other parts of the WOD, so I didn't really think about it again until I was home in the shower.  I started to get mad again. 

Then I gave my head a shake and remembered that if I don't fail every now and then, then I'm probably not pushing myself as hard as I should.  It's actually probably a good thing that I failed. 

Hey you can just call me Little Johnny Brightside.

 

B. Weighted pull up 2-2-2-2

25-35-45-57.5(FAIL)

I was trying to break the 55lb PR I set recently.  I didn't have a lot of confidence, though, as 45 was a struggle.  I got one rep at 57.5, if you're feeling generous.  

C. “If Annie and Karen were sisters…”

AMRAP in 20mins:

30 Double-Unders

20 Situps

10 Wall Ball 20/14lb

  Not a lot of surprises on this one.  Because the reps in each exercise were pretty reasonable, there wasn't a lot of excessive resting.     

My DUs were fairly good.  I think there were only a couple of the rounds where I didn't do 30 straight, which is better than I would have expected.   

Sit-ups got tough.  Once that happened, I broke sets up into three-ish.   

Wall balls were done in sets of 10.   

Thanks to a strong push in the last round, I was able to finish my 10th round and get another five DUs in before the clock stopped. 

10 rounds plus five double unders 

  .

"Nothing good happens in a back alley"

2 rounds for time:

10 Thrusters (115lb)
shuttle run (20m, back, 30m, back)

15 Push Press (115lb)
shuttle run (20m, back, 30m, back)

20 Kettle Bell Swings to Shoulder Height 70lbs
shuttle run (20m, back, 30m, back)

25 burpees
shuttle run (20m, back, 30m, back)

The Rx'd version of this calls for dumbbell thrusters, using 55s.  We had a shortage of those so I volunteered to do a barbell version with a slightly heavier weight.  Even though the weight was heavier, not having to do this with dumbbells means this was an easier version.  Not that it was actually easy, mind you. 

15:26. 



Overheard at the Gym

The Boy accompanied me to the gym, and did the workout in the back alley with the rest of us.  He followed the pace set by Shae, rather than his old man, who was considerably slower.

My son is a very inquisitive little boy. You don't so much have conversations with him as you get interrogated by him.  He just constantly asks questions.  While I love my son as much as one human being can love another, this habit can be somewhat maddening.   I've developed a few coping mechanisms (don't worry, bleeding hearts, none of them involve electroshock training) but have somewhat gotten used to it.

For people who aren't around my kid very much or aren't forced by the laws of nature to love him, his habit might be considered either mildly amusing or insanely annoying. 

Leya, God bless her, seemed to fall in the former camp, and she temporarily immortalized a few of the Boy's questions on the CFR whiteboard.

(To me) "Is she stronger than you?" "Yes, she is."

"Why am I so sweaty?"

(To me) "He's better than you!" He ould've been referring to Lance, Shae, Justin or just about any dude who was there on Sunday, really.  I think he meant "better at CrossFit," but could have been referring to my moral fiber, my contributions to society, or my potential usefulness in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

(To Leya) "Were you born here?" "Yes." "Do you live here?" "Sometimes it feels like it." "Where do you sleep?" "I pull those crash mats up over the bathroom and sleep up there."

"The Bear"

Five rounds of 7 reps of the following complex:
Power clean
Front squat
Push press
Back squat
Push press

No dropping the weight during a round, must touch and go.  Resting is possible, but the weight needs to be across your shoulders or thighs, in the rack position, or held onto in some other awful way. 

I partnered with Lance, which is a terrific way to feel inadequate. He didn't start to use substantially heavier weights than me until the later rounds, though when we were using the same weight, he made it look effortless 

I did it 75-95-115-130-95

With the Open WOD tomorrow, I was thinking I'd go lower than my PR of 130, but plans changed once I saw 125 on the bar.   

Honestly, this is one of the WODs I dread the most, and that's not gonna change. 

No Foolin'

For time:

21-15-9 of:

Snatch (75lb)

Pull-ups

Then 21-15-9 of:

Power cleans (75lbs)

Fucking toes-to-bar

THEN 21-15-9 of:

Push press (75lbs)

Box jumps (24")

This was going alright... then the first segment was done and my forearms caught on to the fact that I was in the process of doing something really terrible to them.  They started actively resisting on the T2B and even on the power cleans.  At that point, it was just a matter of chipping away at the middle segment like Tim Robbins digging an escape tunnel out of RapenSuck Penitentiary in The Shawshank Redemption. 

On the final segment, I went through the push press pretty fast but the box jumps were about as inspiring as you'd expect. (i.e. not very)

Final time: 21:15

Overheard at the Gym

"I'm doing that Whole Life Challenge."

"How is it?"

"It sucks."

"For something called 'Whole Life Challenge,' it sure seems like you're missing out on a lot of things."

Push Press, FrostFit 2012 WOD

A. Push Press 3-2-1-1-1

165x3, 175x2, 185,195, 205F, 200 (PR)


B. "FrostFit 2012 Mix & Match”      

Part 1. AMRAP in 3 mins:                
75 single skips                
50 double unders                
25 crossovers     

Rest 1 minute    

Part 2. AMRAP in 5 mins:                
Barbell thrusters for max lbs lifted      
*choose weight (men: 155/115/95/75)       
*every time bar is put down, do 5 over-the bar burpees 

Skipping: I just barely completed one round.  
Thrusters: I chose 75 and did, I think, 49 reps: 3,675lbs 

Lost my nerve on Back Squats, found my mojo on "Jackie Lite"

A. Back Squats 3-3-3


I came into the gym thinking I'd try to break my three-rep record of 290, but for whatever reason, as I progressed through the lifts, I decided to stop at 275.   It seemed pretty heavy to me. 


B. “Jackie Lite”

For time:
1000m Row
50 Push Press 65
30 Pullups

Looking at the times earlier in the day, I was a little unsure about what kind of time I should expect to get.  Many of the times ranged between 9:00 and 10:00, with a few in the , but I thought I could break 9:00 if I finished the row in under 4:00, the push press in 3:00 and the pull-ups in 2:00. 

My goal with the rower was to maintain a good pace but not go so hard that it would wreck me for the rest of the WOD.   I managed to strike a good balance there. I was off the rower and started the push press by 3:50 or so. 

As it turned out, the push-press went a lot quicker than I expected.  I did them in sets of 25, 14 and 11, and it took a little over a minute to finish it.  I like doing relatively light push-presses.  I've got a pretty good rapid-fire technique down pat, plus my short arms give me an advantage because the bar has to travel less distances. 

Just don't ask me to get anything off a tall shelf for you.  #Midgetpower

I think I took right around two minutes to do the pull-ups. 

Final time was 7:07, which was briefly good for top EFS* score in the gym until Uncles and Chase beat it in the last session of the day.   Fuckers.  Where do they get off, being all strong and fast and in shape?

*EFS: "Except for Shae."  Shae's time on this was something ridiculous like 5:55.   

My muscle-Up inferiority complex plus a 12.3 sampler

A. 12 minutes of Muscle-up practice (transitions and/or negatives)

Three-plus years of CrossFit and I'm still miles from being able to do a muscle-up. It's not a lack of strength, I just don't have the technique down, yet have not worked seriously on correcting this obvious deficit in my CrossFit abilities. Why? There is only one conceivable answer. I suck. I abso-fucking-lutely suck.


B. Short breathing ladder 1->10->1 kettlebell swings 55/35lb overhead

5:55. Nolan wrote down 5:56, but it was 5:55, dammit. 5:55!


Part C was supposed to be a 1K row but the Games competitors (which I am not one) were told to do three rounds of the 12.3 WOD.


C. 3 rounds of 12.3 for time
(The full 12.3 is an 18-minute AMRAP)

15 Box Jumps – 24/20″
12 Push Press – 115/75lb
9 Toes to Bar

Shit... forgot the time. I think it was 6:29. I did it alongside Thomas, who is much better at box jumps than me.

6 a.m. Bedroom Eyes: Turkish Get-Ups and "Oh My"

Second day in a row getting up in time for the 6am WOD. Partial credit goes to my son, who crawled into my bed at 5:14 to ask if he could go downstairs and watch TV.


A. Turkish Get-Ups 3-2-1-1-1

This is only the second time I have ever done Turkish Get-Ups. I like them, but am not that good with them.

3 x 40lb dumbell
2 x 55lb dumbell
1 x 45lb barbell (harder, because of the balancing
1 x 55lb barbell

I then failed three separate times with the 70lb kettlebell. Very close, though.

B. “Oh My!” 7 rounds for time of
7 Hang Power Clean
7 Front Squats
7 Push Press or Push Jerk
20 Double-Unders
Men 75lb/Women 55lb, Intermediate 65/45, Beginners 3-5 rounds with 45/33

11:25 as rx'd. All the DUs were uninterrupted. Not so much for the weight complex after the second round. I should have taped my right wrist, as I was still feeling that injury from a few weeks back on the cleans.

One of the problems with doing the DUs uninterrupted is that it doesn't give you much time for rest.


C. 1km Row for time

4:07. That's an approximate time. I took a break while rowing and the clock read 3:57 when I was done, but I realized at the end that the timer might have stopped when I was resting.

The Bear and Weighted Pull-ups

I had another 5:40am conversation with myself this morning.

"You're awake. Get the fuck up and go to that 6am workout."
"Bed. Comfy. Warm. Tired."
"Don't give me that shit. You know damn well you can get up."
"I could go at noon."
"You always say you want to go at 6am, yet you hardly ever go. It will be a lovely start to your day."
"I was up past midnight last night."
"That's why scientists invented caffiene. Go. You won't regret it."
"But it's cold out there."
"Okay, now you're just being a pussy. Get the fuck up."


A. “The Bear” 5 rounds of 7 reps
1 rep = 1 each of:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press
Increase weights each round.



75-85-105-115-120(PR)

Christian gave some good advice, which was not to increase our weight too quickly. I've felt for a long time that I could do more than my previous best of 115, but the Bear is really frickin' hard. Today at 6am, I just wanted to beat that mark, but not smash it.


B. Weighted Pull-ups 3-2-1-1-1


15-25-35-45F


***

Overheard at the gym:

"Now my family is me, a Japanese dog, and another dude."
.

Push Press and Dot Com 3

A. Push Press 3-3-3

135-155-175(F)

Couldn't even get one of the 175, when I managed three of them the last time we did this in July. Obviously, I'm not pleased, but I probably should have warmed up better and got my head straight if I wanted to take a good run at a new personal best. I'll do better next time.

B. Dot Com 3 from 110828
5 rounds of:
3 Cleans
20 Push-up Burpees
*NOT for time, go as heavy as you can on the cleans

I did 165 for the first round and 175 for the other four.

C. Surprise Finisher 400m run with a 45lb sandbag.

2:09. Not blazing fast, but not bad.

"Kettle Balls"

A. Push Press
5-5-5 (start at about 75% of max overhead, push press or jerk)

135-155-165

B. Deadlift
1×5

It had been forever since I deadlifted. I only did 225. The official reason is that I didn't want to go heavy and hurt my back before Sunday's Frisbee playoffs. The unofficial reason is that I'm a giant pussy.

C. ‘Kettle Balls’

50 Wallballs
15 Kettlebell Swings
35 Wallballs
30 Kettlebell Swings
20 Wallballs
45 Kettlebell Swings

Took me 15:02. It was not fun and I took too many breaks.

Push Press / Rowing Sprints

I was still far from 100 per cent with my arms and shoulders when I went to CFR on Tuesday. I couldn't fully extend my arms above my head without pain. Hanging from the pull-up bar hurt so bad I thought I might lose control of my bodily functions (I didn't).

After some stretching, I was able to do the day's push press workout, and I actually don't think I would have lifted more than I did even if I was injury free. It was weird, I could do kipping handstand push-ups in quick succession, but I couldn't do more than one kipping pull-up and no deadhang pull-ups whatsoever.


Push Press 2-2-2-2-2

115-135-145-155-165

***

The second part of the WOD was an AMRAP involving wall balls, box jumps and bell swings. Given that bell swings were part of the Saturday WOD that fucked up my shoulders and arms in the first place, and wall balls involve extending my arms above my head, I thought it best to do something else. Plus, that fucker looked HARD.

I settled on rowing sprints, 4 x 500m. Not nearly as strenuous as the AMRAP, but still good for a sweat. I waited around two minutes in between.

1:54, 1:48, 1:48, 1:49

I think these times were a bit slower than I'd normally expect of myself. That could be due to the injury, or perhaps a lack of motivation.

Sunday with Shae

This WOD has a name, but I forget what it was. They should call it "Pretty Fucking Unpleasant."

2-4-6-8-10-8-6-4-2 reps of

hang power cleans (135lbs)
push press (135lbs)
super burpees (like a regular strict burpee with two push-ups)

Finish with a 1km run.

Took me 26:21.

“Battle Buddy Bar Day”

The name of this WOD sounds like Japanglish or something.

4 Rounds For Time
40 Front Squats
40 High Pulls
40 Push Press
400 m Run

With a partner, each do half the work, 20 reps each and 200m run each, only one person can do work at a time, the bar can not touch the ground, if the bar touches the ground, penalty = 10 burpees each! Men use 45lb bar, women use 35lb bar, beginners use small bars. Uber’d is 65/45lb.

I partnered with D3, (Team TD not for "Tyler Darcy" but rather "Total Domination") and YOU KNOW we had to uber this bitch. Because we wanted to keep a quick pace, we did our share in alternating sets of 10.

Took us 22:06 as rx'd.
High pulls were the hardest part of this, plus the final 400m was a bit rough. I'm writing this two days later and I still feel it every time I get out of my chair.

Spring Fling WODs 2 and 3

Spring Fling WOD #2 “Pull Through”
For time: 45 Pull-ups
Then 21-15-9 reps of
Power Snatch – 95/65lb
Row Calories

Time was 12:52


“Rain or Shine”
3 rounds for time:
400m Run
20 Push Press/Jerk – 115/80lb
20 Box Jumps – 20″

Time was 13:53

My times today were slower than they were when I did these in the Spring Fling, (10:28 and 3:20 respectively). That can be attributed to a number of factors, but mostly due to the fact that the competition atmosphere is so crazy that it pushes you to your absolute limit. It's hard to take much of a break when you've got a gym full of people screaming at you to pick up that bar or jump on that box, and you've got a counter right with you keeping track of your results and coaching you through. Plus, if you're chasing someone or trying to stay ahead of someone, it gives you a heck of a push.

Plus, I hadn't eaten. I had woke up about 5:45. I didn't warm up. AND it was 6am in the morning and I didn't even have my pre-morning WOD meal of a spoonful of Nutella (note to self: buy more Nutella). Finally, I knew I'd have only a 10-minute break to do these WODs, not five hours so I paced myself a bit more on the first one.

If I'm being honest with myself, I could and should have pushed myself a little harder. Lesson learned.